Itís my first long post on the site.
In case you donít want to read the very details, here is the summary. FII rocks, and freediving might not be for me.

At this stage in life I have too much to lose, wife, kid on the way, and plus I have a family to depends on.
So I took a FII Level 1 with Mark Lozano on 28-29 Dec 2013 for the only purpose to increase my safety.
(Note: I scuba, but never free dive)

We did our classroom and pool at Keliís home due to last minute change. You can find store info here. They have a lot of free diving stuff.http://stores.kelisoceansports.com/
The classroom was entertaining and pool was great. There were great information and I learned a lot about safety and what to do, and what not to do.
The other 5 classmates were great during pool practice, except myself. I was sucked at water entry. This was my first time trying to go head first. Mark was patient and he gave me a 1-1 practice on my dive entry after class.
Come open water at Monterey. Got to dive site on time. Vis was great, swell was a bit big. Nothing to complain.

Here was the worst feeling of my life. I could not clear pass 10ft. My eyes were about to explode every time I attempt. I determined the night before to go down like everyone else.
30 minutes later, I tried to remember what to do, but my head fuked all up. The breath up was not totally relax, mask leak (It did not before), sinus irritation, forgot to spit snorkel out while descending, drink too much salt water-got seasick, bad water entry. You name it. I got all.
On the way back home, I got nausea and my left ear was swollen a bit. Blood come with spits. It occurred for a few days.

The good thing, Mark encouraged and gave constructive criticism along the way. He also gave me a replacement open dive class when I am ready with another local FII instructor.

I took decongestant pill, and nasal spray prescribed by allergy Doc before the dive. I am waiting to see an ENT doctor. Look like surgery is my last option. Jesus, I knew how much the pain is with this type of surgery.
I cannot stop thinking about giving up diving just due to the sinus issue.

It's not a cake walk but if you have come this far I can tell you that you have seen the worst of it in many ways. Take your time and pick a day with good weather to try a shore dive again. Time the tides to get in an hour before high tide.

One of my first dives up here in New England I swam right into a boulder. Good thing was I was leading with my hand. Bad new was I broke a few fingers and was rattled to say the least. But then again it was in about 3' of viz. finally got a little comfortable diving In low viz this year...took almost two years to get it out of my head.

I agree don't give up! I took my class with Errol and got sea sick too, it happens. Don't quit just regroup and try to relax. I'm new to free diving too but it gets better every time I get in the water again. Find some reliable people to dive with and I think you will do good. It's just like anything in life, there will be good days and not so good days. Just because you had one of those not so good days doesn't mean anything. Would say if you gave it several hard tries and still feel the same as you do now then and only then can you say maybe free diving is not for you. Good luck.

Check out Ted Harty with Immersion Freediving. He offers an online Skype session on equalization that has helped several of my friends and family who thought they could never clear their ears freediving.

sound like you suffered a baurotrauama......in can be a bad ear injury and you can permanently damage your ear if you continue to dive without treatment first. I had one many years ago and incurred it in a shallow pool of all places. I would look into it with a doc before going in the water again.

Scuba is more dangerous than freediving so i would be more worried about that.

No expert here, but how often were you clearing on your way down to 10'? When I haven't been in the water for a while, which is almost every time I get to dive now since I live in Ohio, initially I have to start clearing with almost with every kick or so of my decent. As I get back into my grove, the time lengthens and I can "feel" when I need to instead of making myself clear. At first, maybe ever second or so, maybe a bit longer.

Good luck with it though. Maybe spend a few days near shore in shallow water going to the bottom and grabbing onto something and just sitting for a few seconds at a time and letting things equalize. Start at a depth you can do, even if it's just a few feet. Maybe a pool would work for this too.

I remember the first couple of months when I first got into freediving I couldn't equalize past 10/15ft, and worried I would be stuck like that forever. I have always had sinus issues so I figured that was the problem. I would try to play it safe and only dive super shallow where my ears would never hurt, but found out the hard way that even a little pressure without pain can lead to barotrauma.

The good news - one day on the water I was having and extra hard time equalizing, even on the surface. So I took my mask off and just tried equalizing out of the water and it worked fine. I noticed a slightly different feeling when I did it then from when I was in the water with my mask on, like I was doing something different with my throat. I tried to remember the feeling, put my mask back on, and dove. I equalized perfectly fine down to the bottom (maybe 25ft). Equalizing has been no problem ever since. So in the end it just ended up being a technique problem, and I'm really glad I sorted it out and was able to max out the depth in my FII class later when I took it.

So there is still hope! I think once you get the equalization down the rest will be much easier to focus on. Good luck.

Equalizing just comes with time, before i took a class with errol a couple years ago i always had problems clearing my right ear, normally i could get to 35' or so but by the end of the day it got real hard. Thing i learned was that i was waiting til i felt pressure. Now i start equalizing as soon as i start kicking and with what i learned about proper breathing 60-70' is a walk in the park. I still need to retake the open water part since i started getting a sinus infection and errol didn't want me pushing it to get to 35' and permanetly mess something up.

Get a good mask figure out your sinus issue then just practice equalizing even just sitting on the couch, the more you do it the easier it becomes but never try to force it.